


A Shot Across The Bow

by RoseByAnyOtherName17



Series: The Distance [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Concern, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Slash, talk about future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 20:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8911315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseByAnyOtherName17/pseuds/RoseByAnyOtherName17
Summary: "Something's wrong with Scott," Liam said quietly. 
Derek knew how hard it had to be to go behind Scott's back like this and come to him and Stiles, so he let him in.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's been a few days, had a busy week. I don't quite know where this is going, but I'm enjoying it and I hope you are too :)

Liam turned up at Stiles’ house a couple of days later. “I think it was a trap,” he said quietly when Derek opened the door. He let Liam in without a word and shut the door behind them, loud enough for Stiles to come downstairs. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked, smiling at the younger boy.

  
Liam bit his lip. “I need to talk to you guys about Scott.” He looked so nervous that Derek almost wanted him to stop, but the other part of him flared with anger. If Scott had purposely put Stiles in danger, put Liam in danger, he wanted to know.

 

The grin fell away from Stiles’ face. “Let’s go upstairs,” he said quietly enough that his dad couldn’t hear from the kitchen. When the door was shut, Stiles turned back to Liam, already in his desk chair. “What’s going on?”

 

Liam took a deep breath. “With the harpy, the other night, we went in with a plan,” he explained. “Scott said we would surround it and knock it out so you could come kill it for us. But as soon as we got in there, Scott was all over it, and when Malia and I tried to step in he shoved me away and the harpy got its claws across her face. She turned so she could heal faster, and then Scott just…ran out. Malia went after him and then I got knocked out. I don’t…Malia said there wasn’t really a catalyst, she was fine, and Scott didn’t seem like he was hurt but she needed to check and I told her it was fine.”

 

Derek narrowed his eyes. “Is that when he called Stiles?”

 

“I guess so.” Liam shook his head. “Look, I know Scott’s my alpha and everything, but he’s been…he’s different, ever since what happened with Theo and after you left. He doesn’t tell us anything anymore, he tries to do everything by himself. He almost got himself killed back in December because he went up against a wendigo by himself. He thought it’d be okay since he’d done it before, but Chris Argent figured out what happened and went to help.”

 

Stiles frowned. “So you think he got me and Derek to go in alone? And left you as bait?”

 

Liam flinched like he’d been slapped. “I don’t know.”

 

“Derek,” Stiles said sharply. He looked down to see that his palms were bleeding from digging his claws into the skin. Stiles left and returned a second later with a wet wash cloth, taking Derek’s hands one by one and wiping away the blood to reveal freshly healed skin underneath. “Alright?” he said, looking up.

 

Derek nodded and swallowed hard against the lump in his throat.

 

**

 

Liam hung around for a few hours, eyes shining and completely lost. Stiles made him sit on the bed between himself and Derek while they watched episodes of _Mad Men_ and eventually he fell asleep, face pressed into Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles reached for his phone and dialed a number, speaking softly. “Mason, hey,” he said. “Liam’s passed out on my bed, you think you could come get him?” Derek heard an inquiry, and Stiles replied, “Yeah, he’s alright, but he’s had a rough couple of days.”

 

“Of course, I’ll be there in fifteen,” Mason said. Derek wondered if Scott had ever agreed so quickly to come help Stiles out when it wasn’t a matter of life or death.

 

Stiles let out a sigh once Mason had Liam in his car and the door was shut firmly behind them, leaving Derek and Stiles alone once more. “This isn’t Scott,” he said finally, looking right at Derek. “Liam’s right, something’s wrong with him.”

 

“People change,” Derek tried, but he knew it too. Scott wasn’t himself, not like he’d used to be. Something had changed in him. It was then that a thought occurred to him. “Do you remember when you and Scott and Allison sacrificed yourselves for your parents?”

  
“It’s pretty hard to forget,” Stiles said dryly, but he sat down next to Derek on the couch and faced him all the same. “Deaton said that there’d be a darkness in us, forever. It’s what made it so easy for the nogitsune to get inside my head.”

 

“It didn’t seem to affect Scott as much though, did it?”

 

Stiles shook his head. “I mean, he had it bad for a little while, but Scott’s just inherently good, or something. He seemed to deal with it better than I did just by being himself. Allison focused on other things too. It was mostly just me who couldn’t handle it, I guess.”

 

Derek gave him a pointed look. “You dealt with it just fine,” he said. “Well, okay, no you didn’t, but no one blames you for that. I just mean…what if Scott didn’t really deal with it? What if he just pushed it down, and now it’s building up and he can’t control it anymore? You know him better than I do, even now. He was always doing something else when I was here. There was so much going on…”

 

“Even when it was about him, he made it seem like it never was,” Stiles finished. “He never really took the time to mourn Allison because he didn’t need to with Kira there. We had to teach Malia how to control her shift, and then there was Liam and the deadpool and getting you back from Kate, and everything else after you left.” He bit his lip. “Maybe it’s all catching up now. What we did, what happened to Allison, everything that went completely wrong. Me. He never stopped once.” Stiles shook his head. “I should’ve known, I should’ve been there for him.”

 

“No one was there more than you,” Derek said immediately. “This isn’t on you.”

 

Stiles didn’t respond but to rest his forehead on his drawn-up knees and breathe in slowly.

 

**

 

Stiles didn’t even have to beg Derek to go talk to Deaton about Scott. He asked once and continued reasoning through it before Derek could even say yes, and when he did, Stiles looked so shocked that Derek laughed and just barely stopped himself from wrapping a hand around the other’s neck and pressing a kiss to his forehead. But then, that urge was becoming more and more frequent, so it didn’t knock him off balance the way other things about Stiles did. Or, more specifically, the things Derek found himself wanting to do to and with Stiles.

 

It was becoming a problem.

 

But Derek agreed, and the next morning they headed off to Deaton’s after checking with Malia that Scott didn’t have a shift. Stiles drove, almost calm but for the constant drumming of his fingers on the steering wheel. Derek couldn’t help saying, “Lots of memories with that steering wheel,” and when Stiles laughed, he glowed with pride.

 

As it turned out, Deaton wasn’t eager to talk about Scott without him being there. “If there’s a problem, why hasn’t he come to me himself?” he asked, going through what Derek recognized as powdered mistletoe. He flinched as a pinch of it lifted into the air and took a step back to avoid inhaling it.

 

“Because Scott doesn’t know there’s a problem,” Stiles said steadily. “At least, we think he doesn’t. But he’s not himself, Doc, there’s something up with him. You had to have noticed it. He’s been lying to the pack, he left Liam unconscious with a harpy and used me and Derek as bait.”  


“He came for you in Chicago,” Deaton said calmly.

 

“He came because Derek knew something was wrong,” Stiles corrected him. “No one would’ve known for a couple more days at least if it weren’t for Derek.” Derek almost wanted to protest, but that was exactly what it was, so he kept his mouth shut and gazed at Deaton with hard eyes.

  
The veterinarian in question sighed. “I don’t know how I can help,” he admitted. “I told you, there were risks with the Nemeton. You of all people know that, Stiles.”

 

Derek growled in frustration. “Look, can you just…talk to him? Scott will listen to you, he always has. You’re probably the only person who can get through to him.”

 

“I can try, but have you talked to his mother as well?”

 

“Scott would never admit it to her,” Stiles said quietly. “But he might if it’s you.”

 

Deaton promised he would talk to Scott, and the steady beat of his heart was enough to satisfy Derek. Stiles seemed to be good with it too, by the way he nodded and stalked straight out of the clinic as though he couldn’t bear to be there a moment longer. Derek followed without a word, and when the night rolled around he curled his body around Stiles’ despite the heat outside. Stiles clutched his hand and didn’t fall asleep for a long time, so Derek stayed awake until he did, so that he wouldn’t be alone with whatever he was thinking.

 

**

 

Lydia announced toward the end of July that the two-bedroom duplex was theirs and that she would move in when she went back to school. “I’m staying with the counselor’s daughter until the start of September so that I won’t be paying a full month’s rent for that one week in August,” she said, sitting in the middle of Stiles’ bed while he typed away on his laptop. “And then you two can come in October or November, whatever works. You started classes yet, Der?”

 

“I start with the school year,” he told her from where he leaned against the wall.

 

She nodded. “Alright, that’s good. I’m thinking we should go look for furniture for the house. We can rent a truck to move it, but so far the thing is empty but for appliances. I’ve got a list of things we should look for—” she dug around in her purse and produced a torn piece of paper, “—but I need to know what you two plan to do with your room. It’s not really big enough for two full-sized beds, two twins probably, but I know you guys are sharing Stiles’ bed right now. What do you guys want?” She looked at them both expectantly and Derek had never been more grateful for her. There were no suggestive eyebrows or knowing eyes, just the expectation of an answer.

 

Stiles glanced at Derek and raised an eyebrow. Derek shrugged and smiled slightly, so Stiles looked back at Lydia and said, “I don’t have a problem with sharing. I’m kind of used to it by now anyways.” There was a thread of hope woven into his tone, so Derek agreed and didn’t bother to ignore how warm he felt for it.

 

Lydia nodded decisively. “Then we should go sometime this week to look for the things we don’t already have,” she said, passing the list over to Derek so he could scan it. “I thought we could store stuff in the loft for now if that’s okay.”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Derek said.

 

He caught Stiles smiling at him in the next moment and grinned back easily before Lydia turned the discussion to a fierce debate over what movie they should watch until Stiles’ father came home.

 

Lydia won.


End file.
